Eating healthy is all the rage today. Scroll through Instagram’s explore page and you will see what appears to be a million and one voices shouting at you to be healthy. To be specific a complete plant-based diet is the latest fad.
In all honesty, because I grew up eating meat (chicken and beef mostly), for a long time I thought it would be impossible to ever go a week without it. Thursdays and Fridays were vegetarian days when I lived at home with my parents and they always left me feeling unsatisfied to the extent that I would beg my uncle who usually took us to school to take me to Popeyes or to a nearby Chinese restaurant for my meat fix. On Thursdays we ate some type of vegetable with rice and on Fridays we would have dhal and rice.
It’s not that the food tasted bad on those days, but there was no particular explosion of flavour going on like on the other days. I guess it was since then that I attributed being vegetarian or vegan as some sort of daily torture. When people told me they were vegan, I viewed it as self-inflicted punishment, and I immediately felt sorry for them.
However, my husband who is obsessed with looking at health/food documentaries and videos recently gifted me a plant-based cookbook called Rachel Ama’s Vegan Eats. I was a bit taken aback. I wondered if he was subtly hinting that a complete change of diet is on the cards. But later, after skim reading the recipe book, I eventually caved.
So far, I am three recipes in and while I don’t see myself as being completely vegan, I definitely think that there are lots of misconceptions about plant-based food. First and foremost, contrary to popular belief, vegan food is quite tasty. I believe the problem for most people when they hear of vegan food, is that they feel they will miss the taste and textures of meat. Or perhaps they imagine that the substitutes will be on the borderline of extremely disgusting. Disabuse yourselves of these ideas, as it is definitely down to the herbs, spices, grains and so on that you use.
Naturally, not all foods taste yummy, a case in point is kale. But kale mixed with pineapple and apple in a smoothie form is quite refreshing. It’s actually something I look forward to drinking. I will agree that there is no clear substitute for the taste of meat and with that said it becomes easier to try something new without the expectation.
Think of going vegan for a day as if you were trying a new type of meat like rabbit or horse. That is all it really is, a new taste.
Being vegan or vegetarian can also seem to be a slightly bourgeois lifestyle because the access to certain grains, nuts and substitutes for dietary needs can be quite expensive when compared to meat and dairy products that are readily available. This is another reason why adopting a participative vegan or vegetarian lifestyle can be seen as a turn off, it comes off as too much work and as a waste of time if recipes don’t turn out the way you expect or want them to.
Will this be another burnout trend? I don’t think so. What I do know however, is that now more than ever people are concerned about their food, where it is coming from and what it is costing the environment, and this is influencing lifestyles changes even if they are just small ones.
I suppose life has come full circle again with me having selective vegetarian days as I did when I was younger. The only difference now is that I don’t feel the need to cheat. This week I made a middle eastern dish called Tabbouleh (a grain-based salad) and paired it with falafel. It was both hearty and taste-bud worthy. I have come to realize that it is not the lifestyle, but rather the misconceptions that need to be challenged. http://instagram.com/ theonlinerunway
